Ghosts

"The planet of ghosts. The most haunted planet in the galaxy."

Writer: Jonathan Morris

Format: Audio

Released: November 2020

Series: Tenth Doctor & River Song 1.03

Featuring: Tenth Doctor, River

Synopsis

River and the Doctor meet on the most haunted planet in the galaxy. The Doctor's not sure it's an ideal date – until they discovery a mystery.

Something is wrong with the ghosts. Something might even be killing them...

And as the Doctor and River investigate, the truth of what's happening on the planet of ghosts may prove deadly for them both.

Verdict

Ghosts was a great conclusion to the Tenth Doctor and River Song boxset! This was a hugely exciting release and it definitely didn't disappoint as we had David Tennant and Alex Kingston reunited for a terrific trio of adventures! I thought the haunted feel of this finale was excellent and well suited to the pairing, as well as standing out from the previous two stories comprising the series. Both Tennant and Kingston were wonderful and they have such good chemistry which is testament to the writing of Jonathan Morris considering that this was recorded in lockdown and isolation. The idea of placing the Doctor and River on the most haunted planet in the universe was brilliant and I liked the immediate mystery of River not being the one to send the Doctor the coordinates. However, he did come running and hearing the Tenth Doctor deal with admitting that he had quite the fancy for and compassion towards River was sumptuous. The moment where the Doctor recalls his inner Army of Ghosts and imitates Ghostbusters by declaring he wasn't scared of no ghosts and Tennant's laugh that went with that was absolute gold and sheer comedy genius. It really was a tremendous moment. I thought the idea of the ghosts being vague was good and bringing that full circle with the computer system and the memory fading was nicely done. Whilst I enjoyed a lot of this audio, I did feel that it was predictable but that really only slightly impacted my listening. One of the highlights for me was the mystique behind the Doctor's sonic screwdriver being missing and the thought of it being taken by a ghost was fantastic. That didn't turn out to be the case, but how the sonic being missing allowed the Doctor to work out what had occurred was great stuff. The Doctor and River seeing themselves as ghosts was freaky and whilst we didn't have the iconic imagery of Under the Lake/Before the Flood with the ghostly Twelfth Doctor, playing with the idea of the Doctor and River being dead was very good. Hearing the Doctor tackle with his knowledge of River's fate in Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead was magnificent and he almost let slip. The concept of the deadly mist was good and the Doctor trying to refuse that ghosts existed was really good and well in line with stories of a similar nature. I thought a little more could have been made of the mist being intelligent and it was fun that it was blocking the TARDIS. The guest cast were decent and I liked the impact of Alfie's death as he was taken by the mist. The lure of those being taken asking for help was creepy and Betty later taking herself into the mist to be with him was a big shock. The helplessness of the Doctor was unique and a good predicament to place him in. The revelation of what exactly had occurred on this haunted planet with the ship and the depreciating memory files was interesting, but it didn't flow overly well and probably seemed a bit overcomplicated. It was still good, but I particularly thought that the memory update that finished the story was a bit too long. I really enjoyed the true Doctor and River conversing with their virus selves and the mist turning out to be a virus was good, but there were probably too many fine details to take this audio to the next level. I really loved the guest characters being developments of the greek alphabet after being churned out by the ship, and the long history behind it and the holograms being the memories of the dead colonists worked well. As a whole, I thought the premise of this audio was very good and it was lovely to hear the Doctor and River together again! 

Rating: 8/10